Update forms user interface including Pipeline Launch/Relaunch form redesign
complete
Mattia
Improve the user interface (UI) of Seqera Platform/Tower forms to enhance the user experience and overall usability. Employ a phased approach:
- UI update for all forms
- Revamp the Pipeline Launch and Relaunch forms
This will simplify interactions with the Seqera Platform and aims to improve usability in the most frequently used forms.
Specific objectives include:
- Simplifying user navigation through multi-step forms.
- Enabling UI input form view for resume, relaunch, and quicklaunch interfaces.
- Adding validation to forms for enhanced accuracy.
- Updating form content for clarity.
- Redesigning key form components for a more intuitive user experience.
The fully redesigned Pipeline Launch/Relaunch forms will reflect these changes, contributing to a better user experience.
This post was marked as
complete
Rob Newman
This will be released in the v.24.1 of Seqera Platform, targeting end of June 2024.
Mattia
Merged in a post:
Feature requests for better Launchpad integration
W
Wenge Boa
After using the new Seqera Platform Launchpad UI for a while, I have some suggestions for some improvements that would have a large impact. The UI has a lot of promise, but certain tasks are currently very tedious or confusing.
- Currently you can't access the Launch Settings until all required fields in the Launchpad are filled in. If you prefer the simple UI, you have to fill in a bunch of dummy data first. It should be possible to choose between these UIs, even for a pipeline that has a schema file.
- It should be possible to move back and forth between the "Launchpad" UI and the "Launch Settings" UI, and preserve all parameters and settings that are filled in either UI. Right now if you move to the Launch Settings UI, it preserves what you filled in on the Launchpad, but then you can't go back to the Launchpad. If you hit back or Cancel you lose all your settings.
- It's not clear what type of files can be uploaded with the "Upload params file" button. Based on my testing, it looks like .json works, but .yaml does not. For scientific end-users it would be nice to be clear about what's supported and supporting both JSON and YAML would be ideal.
- Upload params fileonly populates visible settings, and ignores hidden settings unless they are being shown. This doesn't work as you would expect and is the source of many unintentional errors due to missing parameters. If you upload hidden parameters, it should show them in the UI and fill them in.
- In the "Launch Settings" page, the "Pipeline parameters" show up as unformatted JSON which is difficult for a human to edit. YAML would be greatly preferred here, and an option for either YAML or JSON would be ideal.
- In the "Runs" UI, the "Parameters" tab shows the parameters as neither JSON nor YAML. It's a custom "key = value" format that is not very useful. It would be ideal to be able to copy all the parameters here and paste them into a new pipeline invocation. YAML format would be greatly preferred here and an option for either YAML or JSON would be ideal.
- In the "Runs" UI, when you "Relaunch" a previous pipeline run, it should be possible to toggle between the "Launchpad" and the "Launch settings" UIs.
Thank you for your consideration!
Mattia
Hi Konrad! Appreciate your feedback! We've made updates, clarifying point 3 in the UI and now allow downloading run parameters in JSON format for easier integration into new pipelines. Enhancements in representation are on the way. The other points are in progress as part of our launch form redesign. I will merg your request into that thread to keep you in the loop. Thanks for helping us improve!
Mattia
Merged in a post:
Easier editing of parameters on Pipeline relaunch
W
Weekly Elk
It's often convenient to relaunch a certain Pipeline Run, just modifying one or two parameters. Currently there are two issues with this:
- The relaunch option is grayed out when a Run is still in-progress. It is only available after a run has completed.
- When you click "Relaunch", the nice graphical user interface is gone and you have to edit the parameters manually in JSON format.
This could be partially resolved by formatting the JSON with line breaks and indents. Currently, it's rendered as a single line and is difficult to parse. Or it could be resolved more completely by using the full graphical user interface.
Mattia
in progress
Mattia
Merged in a post:
Submit copy of run with slight variations
M
Magenta Anteater
I often want to run a pipeline with only slight variations in the parameters in order to see the effects of these changes. Using the Launchpad in the Tower GUI, it seems I have to completely fill in the parameter values for each iteration even though most of them are the same. If a job fails, then I can relaunch and it gives me a pre-populated form for that run, but for a running job there seems be no equivalent.
It would be great if running jobs had an option to 'submit another' or something, and then you would be presented with a form pre-populated with the parameter values for that run, and you could just tweak a few as needed and submit.
Mattia
Merged in a post:
rendering parameter UI when relaunching a pipeline.
G
Gamboge Muskox
Hi there, When launching a pipeline, Tower will fetch the schema file and render a UI for all pipeline parameters described in the schema file. However, if a user tries to relaunch the same pipeline, Tower does not render the UI anymore and the parameters can only be edited through editing the JSON string in the lunch sittings.
It would be great if the pipeline relaunch render the parameter UI with the input parameters of the previous executions so the User can change them easily.
Thanks Ziad
Mattia
planned